376 
Letters 3 Extracts, and Notes. 
The activities of the Museum staff have been largely 
devoted to the direction of collecting expeditions. In 1907 
and 1908 Miss Alexander personally conducted expeditions to 
Alaska. The results of the expedition of 1907 have recently 
been published in the series of University of California 
Publications in Zoology. During the summers of 1908 and 
1909 five collectors were at work in different fields under 
the direction of Mr. Grinnell. 
The museum aims at becoming the centre for the systematic 
study of the birds, mammals, and reptiles of the Pacific 
Coast. The Collections of the Biological Survey in Washing¬ 
ton are vastly larger, even with regard to Pacific Coast forms, 
but of course are not available for study in this part of the 
country. 
The staff of the museum consists of Mr. Joseph Grinnell, 
formerly of the Tliroop Polytechnic Institute of Pasadena, 
Director; Mr. Harry S. Swarth, curator of birds; and 
Mr. W. P. Taylor, assistant curator of mammals. Mr. 
Edmund Heller, appointed curator of mammals, is at present 
on an indefinite leave of absence, with the Smithsonian 
Institution’s expedition to Africa under Colonel Boosevelt. 
I am, Sirs, yours &c., 
Berkeley, California, Joseph Grinnell. 
December 17th, 1909. 
Sirs, — I wish to congratulate you on Dr. Sclater’s article 
(‘ Ibis,’ 1909, p. 347) on the practice of attaching “ authori¬ 
ties ” to the scientific names of animals. This practice has 
for many years seemed to me an absurd contradiction to the 
principle of Binomial Nomenclature. If it be once admitted 
as necessary there can be no reason for changing a specific 
name when it has been already used for another species of the 
same genus. If it be once granted that a species should be 
called “ rufus Smith ” and not simply “ rufus ,” there can be 
no reason for changing a specific name when it has already 
been used for another species of the same genus. The 
different authority ” would be sufficient to distinguish them. 
